[Wikipedia-l] paypal

Thu Aug 21 23:55:41 UTC 2003

Walter Vermeir wrote:

>Jimmy Wales <jwales at bomis.com> wrote in
>news:20030821130355.B456 at joey.bomis.com: 
>
>  >
>>donation at wikipedia.org is the correct email
>>address to use. 
>>    >>
>
>
>PayPal is popular but you need a credit card. Those
are not very popular in 
>Europe. Expensive, unsucre and not very usefull. Most
transactions are done  
>by bank tranfer and a debet card. 
>  >
A few points:
-- Paypal does not require a credit card.  You can
make direct bank 
transfers as well.
-- Credit cards are not expensive -- they are entirely
free.  I 
certainly don't pay anything at all for any of mine
(and you don't pay 
interest if you pay your bills on time either). 
They're essentially the 
same as a debit card, but more secure (if there's a
dispute with a 
dishonest merchant, you don't pay until the dispute is
resolved, while 
with a debit card they already have your money, and
you don't get it 
back until the dispute is resolved -- also by law in
the US at least, 
the consumer is only responsible for up to $50 of
credit card fraud).
-- In the US at least, most debit cards work through
the credit card 
system as well.  They're treated as debit, but you can
use them in a 
credit card reader just fine.

---------

This is just the perfect example that customs are
different and that some have no awareness of that.

France is the country were credit cards are the most
used. Because we worked on the little electronic
device for security, and I think our cards are amongst
the most secure cards in the world.

Basically every adult has a credit card. Only very
young people and people with bank problems do not. I
got mine at 16. It is very very common system of
paiement. And very very few people use debit card.
That is just not customary, unless you are in the
situation  indicated above. I got a debit card at 14.

This has a price, mind you. About 250 FF a year...that
is ... well...say 40 euros a year. I think I pay 7
euros per months for 2 cards and account support. 

Not exactly free. I could go to the movie with that.

>In the euro-zone you can make a bank transfer from
one account to a other 
>account in the euro-zone for the same price like a
local transfer. That is 
>almost always free.
>
>Whit PayPal there are transcation costs and change
from currency costs.
>
>A Wikimedia euro bankaccount in euro-zone state can
be usefull for 
>donations from Europe. No need for a credit card,
easy to do, no loss of 
>mony; 1 euro donation = 1 euro for Wikimedia. Not 1
euro - x%
>  >
On the other hand, the expenses are all currently in
the US, so the 
currency will have to be converted at some point to
US$.  This would 
also require a resident of Europe to handle the bank
account and to 
periodically mail checks to Jimbo (or bank transfer
the funds to a US 
account, which probably isn't free).

-Mark

I have never heard of paypal in france. I saw it on
american web sites. I doubt french would do donations
by that way, but who knows ? I think a bank account in
euros would not be a uninteresting choice.

Another cultural difference : French have heard a lot
that internet paiement are unsure and that they could
be cheated. For this reason, electronic sales are
still very low. Very. Another reason for which french
would probably not easily consider an electronic
donation.

But well....

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